Update: A new courtroom drama just hit No.6 on Netflix — here’s what you need to know
We’ve just ventured to a theater to see Netflix‘s latest win, which is — surprise — another film that proves you shouldn’t shy away from subtitles. Released on Netflix on May 22, the Indian Blockbuster RRR (yes, RRR) is one of those movies that comes out of nowhere to most, but has been on the tips of the tongues of movie buffs around the world.
RRR, which just came back to theaters for a very-short 2-night run (which was supposed to just be one night only) on June 1 and 2, stands for Roudram Ranam Rudhiram in its native Telugu translates to Rise, Revolt, and Revenge in English (Though, originally it was a placeholder for the director and stars names). And now it’s got a good shot of getting onto our best Netflix movies list.
One of our recent picks for the best new movies to watch online, RRR is currently ranked at #7 on Netflix’s Top 10 movies in the U.S. Today list (and has been there since yesterday). But that’s just a hint at the film’s success on Netflix. In its second week on Netflix (May 23 – 29), RRR made it to the #1 slot in the non-English films list for the streaming service, after being at the #6 slot the week before (May 16 – 22).
So far, Netflix’s numbers reflect its audiences have watched 25,540,000 hours of the film in its two weeks on the service. Comparatively to the English-language films on Netflix from this past week, that’s just over the 24+ million hours that Senior Year pulled in (during its third week on Netflix), and less than the 32+ million hours that A Perfect Pairing viewers logged (in its second week).
So, what’s all the fuss about?
RRR is the latest film from Indian film director S. S. Rajamouli, whose films are classified as high fantasy. Released in March, but hard to find in the U.S. for various reasons we’ll get to below, RRR is — by Rajamouli’s own words — an “imaginary friendship between two superheroes.”
Having just watched it, I can say that the description I had read — Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.), a pair of Indian folk heroes, fight British Colonialists in the 1920’s — is one of the best ways to distill a very complicated and awesome movie.
That might not sound like fantasy to you, but check out Netflix’s RRR trailer. Jam-packed in a series of blink-and-you-miss-it moments, is a shot where Komaram Bheem is throwing a motorcycle at someone, you know, as a weapon.
As someone who’s proudly seen all the Fast and Furious movies in order and loved Top Gun Maverick, RRR has been on my radar for weeks. Full of flying arrows, fire, trees thrown as weapons and tigers just itching to maul, RRR has been lauded by critics, earning an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes (opens in new tab), with an audience score of 94%.
The only asterisk for these reviews is that RRR’s not exactly penetrated the market here, with only 29 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
A couple of friends of mine have been raving about RRR since its limited release in the U.S. began. I, unfortunately, missed the first window when local theaters in NYC were screening RRR regularly.
But I’m told that Netflix, for some reason, got the lesser version of RRR. As you’ll see when you load it, Netflix has a Hindi translation of RRR, and not its original Telugu. This may be because Hindi is a more popular language, but I’m told the movie will lose a lot in translation, as its musical segments drop something in translation going from Telugu to Hindi. This is a problem because Netflix is believed to have translated the Hindi and not the original Telugu for the English subtitles. And as one friend said, “The lyrics are metal as f**k when you get a direct translation” in the theater.
Oh, and the spectacle of RRR, I was told, is best in theaters. And I can state that’s correct, as the experience I had in theaters on Thursday night was one-of-a-kind. We were clapping to the beat of the music in one of the fight scenes at the movie last night, in a fantastic moment.
Next: The George Kambosos Jr vs Devin Haney live stream is a light-heavyweight boxing gold rush! Also, it’s time to circle the Ms. Marvel release date and time on your calendars.
When it comes to cinematic propaganda, blatant is better than insidious. Overt advocacy has the virtue of candor and the vigor of fervent emotion. A movie such as “Top Gun: Maverick” hides its messages under the guise of unexceptionable realities, whereas another new, high-energy, political action spectacle, the Indian film “RRR” (which was released theatrically in March and is now streaming on Netflix, where it’s in the top five), makes its statements explicit. It thrusts its imaginative artistry thrillingly and gleefully to the fore.
“RRR”—the title stands for “Rise Roar Revolt”—turns history into legend by way of heightened visual rhetoric. It’s based very loosely on the real-life stories of two Indian revolutionaries of the early twentieth century, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, who contested the oppressions of British colonial power. There’s no record of their having met, let alone joining forces. The director, S. S. Rajamouli—who also wrote the screenplay, based on a story by V. Vijayendra Prasad (his father)—derives a magnificent outpouring of creative energy from the inspiring fantasy of their volatile connection. (The movie’s original language is Telugu; the version shown on Netflix is dubbed into Hindi.)
On a motor trip through the Indian countryside, Catherine Buxton (Alison Doody), the high-handed wife of the British colonial governor, buys an Indian girl named Malli (Twinkle Sharma) as one might buy a pet. The governor’s party carts the child away over the protests of her mother, Loki (Ahmareen Anjum), who is brutalized by British guards. Malli is from the Gond tribe, which is said to hold fast together, and its so-called shepherd, Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao, Jr.), a fierce warrior, heads to Delhi to find her, disguising himself as a Muslim mechanic named Akhtar. The British governor, Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson), is warned by an Indian police officer about the shepherd and his ferocity; Buxton orders his officers to find and capture the shepherd. One of his Indian police officers, Raju (Ram Charan), volunteers for the mission, planning to infiltrate the city’s revolutionary Indian circles. In Delhi, two Indian strangers see a boy drowning in the river and team up to rescue him; the two men, Raju and “Akhtar,” become fast friends. Raju is unaware that Akhtar is the warrior he’s looking for, and Akhtar is unaware that Raju works for the man whose household he aims to raid. The drama of their secrets, and the circuitous path of their ultimate collaboration (it’s no spoiler), involve scenes of moral and emotional horror that are redeemed in the high purpose of their historic mission.
The similarity in tone to other Indian action films is matched by what it shares with Hollywood Blockbusters, too. The drama is built around action, stints on character, features very little dialogue that doesn’t advance the plot, and offers neither psychology nor history nor social context to enrich the historical framework. It’s a movie of shortcuts and elisions no less relentless than those of American superhero or superstar vehicles, but Rajamouli is an artist of a distinctive temperament and talent. He spotlights the halo of legend in an extended scene that introduces Raju, at a prison where Indian people are storming the gates to free a prisoner. There, Raju takes on the entire surging crowd by way of impossible acrobatics and eruptive martial artistry (highlighted by a madly rotating camera) that plays like a live-action cartoon. The element of fantasy is intensified by a sequence of Bheem’s rigorous self-imposed training, which involves single-handed battle with a wolf and a tiger.
There’s an overt element of exaggeration that bends the story into the substance and the tone of legend—the effect is of an onscreen tall tale. It’s a film of giddy, exhilarating hyperbole in which physical action pierces the barrier of impossibility but stops short of the supernatural or superheroic. And there’s a dashing graphic sense of composition and an assertively precise sense of rapid action that owes nothing to the generic jumble with which most Hollywood action scenes are filmed and edited. “RRR” is also filled with gore: streaming blood, spurting blood, bodies beaten and pierced and torn. Yet the combination of sharply determined political purpose and compositional artistry lends the horror an air of abstraction that stokes a sense of indignation or of justice without physical disgust or titillation.
The plot has twists and turns, hidden byways and surprising connections, that have the dazzle of magic tricks. The story’s omissions and truncations—an odd thing to refer to in a movie that runs to nearly three hours—contribute to the air of wonder and lend a jolt of astonishment to an extensive flashback that’s dropped in midway through. The drama is rooted in the absolute sadism, the monstrous and indeed genocidal racism of the British, the governmental terrorism with which Buxton reigns, the pathological bloodlust of power that Catherine flaunts, the dehumanizing prejudices of subordinate officers, and the vile politics of hiring indigenous people to do their dirty work. The story’s view of colonial despotism involves not only grievous economic inequality but also relentless political repression—and a sense of fear that’s nearly a sense of doom, signalled by the absolute ban on Indian people owning firearms and the tumult that results when even a single rifle falls into the hands of one of them.
For all its political determination, “RRR” is also a musical, and an electrifying one. The movie is filled with music and with characters singing at moments of grand political import; when Raju and Bheem manage to attend a high British social gathering, they convert a moment of cultural chauvinism into a spectacular dance-off. The frenetically athletic choreography involves gestures of a rapid-fire sculptural majesty to match the geometric flair of the images that capture it. Where the movie’s central dance is pugnaciously competitive, the fight scenes are dance-like, featuring moments of phantasmagorical splendor. One won’t soon forget the vision of a warrior carrying another on his back, with the one on top bearing two rifles and shooting them with deadly accuracy in opposite directions while the bearer breaks on the run through a brick wall. Or a runaway motorcycle being stopped with one foot as if it were a soccer ball, caught in midair, and hurled with the devastating force of a cannonball. Or a single flaming arrow igniting the entire countryside and yielding Wagnerian images of sublime destruction.
The drama of political unity that song lyrics characterize as “friendship between an erupting volcano and a wild storm” is also a flag-waving spectacle of patriotic pomp. The movie’s powerful sense of revolutionary virtue and collective purpose yields to nationalistic pride that’s danced and sung with uninhibited joy. The concluding production number, with militaristic bravado, spotlights the present-day purposes of this quasi-historical tale.
This film is a documentary, comedy, romance, and so much more all at once, and yet something completely different.
The first feature film by a Black lesbian ever, The Watermelon Woman is a landmark film that remains one of the most important works of the New Queer Movement during the ’90s.
Director, writer, and star Cheryl Dunye stars as Cheryl, a Black lesbian working at a video store, who after watching a film called Plantation Memories with an unnamed Black actor only referred to as “The Watermelon Woman” decides to make a movie searching for her true identity.
While a lot of queer movies on this list are pretty well known, this one tends to fall out of the picture, making it even more important to stream.
The film is available to watch on Showtime and Fubo.
Nagpur: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Dr. Mohan Bhagwat during the concluding programme of Shiksha Varg at Reshimbag ground in Nagpur on June 2, 2022. (Photo: Chandrakant Paddhane/IANS)
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LOS ANGELES, July 3 (Variety.com) – It’s official — the
Minions are back.
Universal and Illumination’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” is
setting off fireworks at the Fourth of July box office,
projecting a $129.2 million opening over the four-day holiday
weekend from 4,400 locations. On a three-day scale, the
“Despicable Me” prequel looks to gross $109.4 million — that
number would mark the highest domestic opening for an animated
film since 2019’s “Frozen 2,” representing a huge bounce back
for family-friendly fare after lockdowns due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
The Illumination production took off to an explosive $10.75
million in Thursday previews, initially setting projections for
the long holiday weekend in the range of $65 million to $75
million. “The Rise of Gru” is now nearly doubling those
estimates.
Should the “Minions” sequel fulfill its current projections,
the film will shatter the Fourth of July weekend box office
record. paramount’s “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” currently
stands as the highest grossing earner for an Independence Day
four-day frame — the 2011 Blockbuster grossed $115.9 million
over the period.
Additionally, “The Rise of Gru” has a chance to become
Illumination’s top domestic opener ever. The film’s predecessor,
2015’s “Minions,” currently stands as the animation studio’s
best, with a $115.7 million three-day opening. The sequel could
break beyond that figure if it continues to grow over the
weekend. In other words, the Minions may be bigger than ever.
“Minions: The Rise of Gru” serves as both a sequel to 2015’s
“Minions” and a prequel to “Despicable Me.” The film follows a
12-year-old Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) as he grows up in awe
of a team of supervillains. Hankering to join them, Gru asks his
sentient, overall-sporting pill creatures to sit on the
sidelines for the job interview. Of course, things don’t quite
work out as Gru expects them to. The voice cast also includes
Pierre Coffin, Alan Arkin, Taraji P. Henson, Jean-Claude Van
Damme, Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren and Danny Trejo.
With little competition for kid-friendly films on the
immediate horizon, Universal hopes that “Minions: The Rise of
Gru” enjoys a long run at the summer box office. Word-of-mouth
should be strong, as audiences bestowed the film an “A” rating
through research firm Cinema Score, indicating enthusiastic
approval.
Critics have generally met “The Rise of Gru” amicably too,
with the film scoring a 70% aggregate approval rating from top
critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety chief film critic Peter
Debruge quite enjoyed what he called a “delightfully silly
sequel,” writing: “Six months into 2022, it’s the funniest film
Hollywood has produced thus far. Audiences know what to expect,
and Illumination delivers, offering another feel-good dose of
bad behavior.”
In the now weekly segment of “Goodness gracious, ‘Top Gun:
Maverick’ is only dropping how much?,’ the Tom Cruise sequel is
projecting a measly 9% fall from its outing last weekend,
drawing a $26.8 million three-day haul. The numbers shouldn’t be
surprising after more than a month of box office dominance,
especially considering the star-spangled sequel essentially
advertises itself as the ultimate movie to go see on Fourth of
July weekend, though they continue to impress.
“Maverick,” which was co-financed and co-produced by
Skydance, should take silver at the Fourth of July weekend box
office. The film will expand its domestic gross to $572 million
through Monday, continuing to push the ceiling higher on its run
as 2022’s highest grossing domestic release.
“Elvis” is headed for third place. The Warner Bros. released
added $5.3 million to its domestic gross on Friday, dropping a
moderate 58% from its opening day last weekend. The film is
expected to push its total North American gross past $70 million
through the holiday weekend.
With a production budget of $85 million, “Elvis” has a ways
to go to land comfortably in the black. However, the film has
still managed to put together an impressive first ten days for a
release aimed squarely at adult audiences without ties to any
franchise.
Universal’s “Jurassic World Dominion” is eyeing a fourth
place finish, dropping a modest 39% from its outing last
weekend. Though the film is billed as the finale to the
“Jurassic” franchise, “Dominion” should expand its domestic haul
to $336 million through Monday, indicating that there’s still
plenty of gas in the tank for the dinosaur-centric property.
Fifth place should go to Universal as well, with the
Blumhouse production “The Black Phone” set to earn $11.9 million
over the three-day frame. That’s only a 50% drop-off from its
opening last weekend, which is a comparatively strong hold for
the horror genre. The Scott Derrickson-directed feature only
carries an $18 million production. With the film set to expand
its domestic haul to $50 million through Monday, Universal and
Blumhouse should be glowing at the turnaround.
Beyond the top five, Disney’s “Lightyear” is facing the heat
from “Minions: The Rise of Gru” drawing in family audiences. The
Pixar production added $2 million to its domestic haul Friday,
dropping 64% from the previous week. The “Toy Story” spinoff has
been one of Pixar’s slowest films to push past a $100 million
domestic gross and has yet to match the $120 million opening
weekend figure of “Toy Story 4” in 2019.
In terms of previous Pixar productions, “Lightyear” is on
track to land in the neighborhood of the studio’s lowest
grossing domestic earners. The film has only surpassed the
pandemic-impacted $61.5 million haul of 2020’s “Onward.” Now, it
looks to grow beyond “The Good Dinosaur” ($123 million), “Cars
3” ($152 million), “A Bug’s Life” ($162 million) and, if the box
office legs prove stronger than anticipated, “Cars 2” ($191
million) and the first “Toy Story” ($192 million).
“Mr. Malcolm’s List,” a regency era romantic drama, isn’t
making much of an impression in its domestic debut. The film is
projected to earn $1.03 million over the four-day holiday frame
from 1,384 locations, marking a meager $741 per theater.
Bleecker Street is handling North American distribution.
Entertainment Bureau
Entertainment Bureau brings you all updates from the world of entertainment — breaking news, Twitter trends, features, movie reviews, exclusive inter…Read More
Summertime fun. Family-friendly. Date night favorites.
Those details relate to the atmosphere of the drive-in theater, an American casual entertainment format that found its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s.
At such a theater, visitors pull up vehicles in a parking lot, facing a huge outdoor movie screen, purchase concession snacks, set up a radio or a speaker device to listen to the audio, and enjoy a show (often a double feature) that starts after dusk.
According to the website of The Capri Drive-In Theater in Coldwater, there were 110 drive-ins in Michigan during 1958, considered the peak of the trend in this state.
There are now only nearly a dozen.
Here’s a roundup of where the traditional drive-ins can be found.
2778 E. Sanilac Rd., Carsonville
It’s one of Michigan’s oldest operating outdoor movie venues, dating back to 1948. Sound is available through FM car radio. They’ve also participated in some drive-in livestream concert events.
Schedule: They plan to open in May for the 2022 season. The box office opens at 7:30 and the movies start at dusk; new movies start on Fridays.
119 W. Chicago Road, Coldwater
Opened in 1964, with a second screen added in 1986, this is a two screen theater lot. Sound is available through AM and FM, or you can rent a portable radio on site. Was named “One of Ten Drive-Ins Worth a Detour” in 2001 by USA Today and The New York Times.
Schedule: The 2022 season has started. The box office opens at 8 p.m. with shows Friday through Sunday; movies start at sundown.
10400 Ford Road, Dearborn
Opened in spring 1950. Because the 70th anniversary happened during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the theater postponed the public celebration and rescheduled it for May 19, 2022.
Schedule: The seven-day season has started for 2022. Box office opens 7:45 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 8 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays. New movies and showtimes posted weekly.
28190 M-152, Dowagiac
Built in 1961. Radios are available to loan out if your vehicle does not have FM. Playground on site. Private party rentals available.
Schedule: Plans to open for 2022 season on May 27. Shows on Friday and Saturday nights, gates open at 7 p.m., movie begins at dusk. Occasional midnight showings on Thursdays.
5200 Fenton Road, Flint
Audio heard through FM radio, rentals available.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday showings started in mid April; 7 days a week starting Memorial Day weekend. Gates open at 7:30 p.m. Movie selections change weekly.
69071 Red Arrow Highway, Hartford
Opened in 1948. Sound is via FM radio, loaners are available. According to the website, pets are also welcome.
Schedule: The 2022 season begins May 27, shows are Friday and Saturday nights. Gates open at 7 p.m. with first movie at dusk. Occasional midnight showings on Thursdays.
9812 Honor Highway, Honor
Opened in 1953, with a playground and mini golf on site. According to the website, other events include pony rides, clowns, classic car cruises and more. Sound available via FM radio or speakers mounted on posts.
Schedule: Plans to open for 2022 season, date to be announced. Ran Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during 2021. Showings begin at dusk.
5885 W. US Highway 2, Manistique
The only drive-in theater currently operating in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Opened in 1953, closed in 2001; then, the founding members of the Upper Peninsula Film Union started to host movie nights in 2016. The Film Union acquired the property in 2018. Admission is free, donations welcomed, nonprofit groups host the concession stand.
Schedule: Four movie nights have been announced for the 2022 season, starting June 25.
6501 N. Monroe St., Monroe
The theater opened in 2021 after several years of planning. It is on the site of the former Denniston Drive-In that closed in 1985. Movie sound is by FM radio. Playground on site.
Schedule: The 2022 season began May 6. Box office opens at 8 p.m.
920 E. Summit Ave., Muskegon
This drive-in has four screens with radio sound with a playground on site. It’s part of the Celebration Cinema theater group.
Schedule: The 2022 season has started. Gates open at 8 p.m. New schedule usually starts on Friday.
14900 Beck Road, Plymouth
The drive-in shows take place in the USA Hockey Arena parking lot. Radio sound.
Schedule: The “Sneak Peak Weekends” for the 2022 season are May 20-21 and May 27-29.
“After
Minnal Murali ’s premiere, someone in the audience walked up to me and asked, ‘Can I hug you?’.” Guru Somasundaram breaks into a laugh remembering the incident. Life has changed overnight for him after the film dropped on Netflix on Christmas eve. His nuanced performance as the antagonist has been widely appreciated by critics and audiences alike.
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There is a child-like joy in Guru as he talks about the movie. “I generally don’t watch my movies. In fact, I rarely check the monitor after giving a shot. But when I started working on
Minnal Murali , I felt it was going to be special. So I watched it with the whole team before the premiere and I was shocked. It was as if I had been struck by lightning, just like my character in the movie,” he laughs.
The film, set in a village called Kurukkammoola, revolves around two men — Jaison (Tovino) and Shibu (Guru), who are struck by lightning on the same night. Both gain superpowers and circumstances pit them against each other.
Unrequited love and society’s indifference to his plight make Shibu an embittered man. In Basil’s words, Shibu is the “second hero” and not the villain.
Rarely does the audience root for a villain. But Shibu’s character design managed to do that. Not many know that Guru is the same deplorable villain in ‘Sethulakshmy’, one of the segments in the five-film Malayalam anthology,
5 Sundarika l (2013). He acted as a studio owner who abuses a school girl (Anikha Surendran) in the segment directed by cinematographer Shyju Khalid. “I know how much people hated the character in ‘Sethulakshmy’. And here is Shibu who wins people’s hearts despite his actions. I was not prepared for this level of adulation,” he says.
Basil and his team met Guru in 2019 to discuss the project. “He narrated the full script, playing the background music on his phone! I didn’t expect that I would get to do so much; I was prepared for the physical and emotional transformation of the character. Things went on to another level once I started shooting,” says Guru, who made his debut with Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s cult movie,
Aaranya Kaandam .
Guru believes he owes it all to his decade-long association with Chennai-based Koothu-P-Pattarai, one of the prominent theatre groups in the country. “I grew up in Madurai, which had so many theatres. I have watched a lot of movies in my childhood with my mother. Becoming an actor was the last thing on my mind during my growing up years because I was shy. I took up a job after finishing my studies. However, after a point I felt lost and didn’t know what to do. That is when I read about Koothu-P-Pattarai and I fell in love with theatre.”
He recalls that during Navarathri, his mother would take him out dressed up as a girl. Probably the acting part came from there!
Theatre gives the confidence to improvise, he adds. “When writers give space for me to improvise, I always make use of it. It is like blowing a balloon to its maximum capacity. You have to ensure that it doesn’t burst, though. Similarly, I improvise without changing the crux of the scene,” he explains.
The first step to becoming Shibu, says Guru, was learning Malayalam. He took lessons from YouTube and can now read and write the language. “I believe that it is important for an actor to learn the language to portray the emotion. It was also about establishing a bond with every one on the set. Knowing the language gave me a special energy and that helped my performance,” he says.
Actor-director Dileesh Pothan had dubbed for Guru in
5 Sundarikal . “Initially, when I struggled with the dialogues, Basil used to pull my leg saying ‘I will have to call Dileesh again’. However, after a scene with Harisree Asokan where he gets murdered, Basil told me that I should dub for my character.”
He also watched Malayalam movies to pick up the language. “I saw many movies of Sreenivasan sir, such as
Nadodikattu, Angane Oru Avadhikalathu, Akkare Akkare Akkare… One movie I watched multiple times was
Njan Prakashan . It had simple dialogues,” says Guru, who has also acted in critically-acclaimed
Jigarthanda (2014),
Joker (2016) and
Jai Bhim (2021).
Guru is elated that he is acting in Mohanlal’s directorial debut,
Barroz in February. His upcoming Malayalam release is Abhilash S Kumar’s
Chattambi , along with Sreenath Bhasi and Chemban Vinod.
His dream is to do a full-length comedy role. “Many people have told me that I remind them of Nagesh sir. He is a fabulous artiste even though we have seen him more in comedies,” he adds.
Does he have a favourite villain-actor? “Raghuvaran sir. I believe that a villain has to be have some honesty about him. That is something I learnt from a Brazilian theatre artiste. He observed that heroes in our films remain good and villains are always bad. According to him, there should be a mix of good and bad in the characters. Raghuvaran sir’s villain roles had that blend. I like to play such characters,” he concludes.
After “Goodfellas,” Mr. Liotta played a doctor in the poorly received “Article 99″ (1992) and seldom had top billing in his later films. He received good reviews for playing a corrupt police officer in “Cop Land” (1997) and as a Mafioso in “Killing Them Softly” (2012). He had acclaimed roles in two cable dramas, “Shades of Blue,” playing a crooked cop, and “Texas Rising,” set in 19th-century Texas. In 1998, he portrayed Frank Sinatra in an HBO film, noting, “I’m from Jersey, I’ve got blue eyes, I’m close enough.”
